Tune In: A Celebrity Esthetician's Best Skin Care Tips For Fresh, Bright Skin

"Beauty is a choice, not by chance," celebrity esthetician Danuta Mieloch tells me on this episode of Clean Beauty School. The founder of the famed Rescue Spa joins me on today's episode to discuss her skin care staples, the most common mistakes she sees folks make, and how to actually build a routine that works. 

And the very first lesson we got into was all about the importance of the daily choices you make for your skin—not the big ticket items. "Your skin care routine is supremely important. It's how you choose to take care of your skin," she says. "You can get as many facials, laser treatment, injectables, or whatever you wish to do, but if you haven't developed a good skin care routine at home, you're missing out."

While consistency is good, don't confuse it with being stagnant. Skin care routines should adjust as your skin evolves with time. "The magic of the skin is that it's a living organ that reproduces and regrows," Mieloch tells me. "The skin is forever changing." 

As an esthetician and product formulator, Mieloch knows the importance of finding products that have an effective, safe formula. For her, that means clean. 

"If the products are created well, it's not just about the active ingredient only, because that can only be a small percentage. So what is the base? It's super important that the base is beneficial for the skin as well," she says.

She uses silicones as an example. While these ingredients aren't particularly dangerous for the skin, they are often just filler ingredients—added to make the texture have a certain slip or consistency. But they're not actually providing the skin nutrients, like vitamin-rich botanical oil or butter might. 

Folks tend to think of "firming" as a goal for only those who are of a certain age—like say, when you start to see sagging or fine lines. But Mieloch says anyone would benefit from firming. 

"I'm in my 50s, so I need firming ingredients, but for somebody even younger, they might need firming on the level of pores. Younger folks can benefit from firming, as it can help the face structure and tighten pores, for example," she says. She advises looking for firming peptides, retinols, and antioxidants as actives to help firm the skin.